There are many plastic blister packaging systems and methods which provide for the encapsulation or packaging of one or more articles within a plastic thermoformable blister, typically a transparent blister, which blister is usually secured to a flat paper card. The blister package optionally may have a window in the card about which the plastic blister is sealed to enclose the packaged article or articles.
For example, a typical blister packaging system may comprise a card-receiving station wherein a flat paper card is provided which may be perforated along a line of the card, which card may have a window aperture cut therein. The system would then include a receiving and positioning station, in which a flat, thermoformable plastic sheet material, such as polyvinylchloride or other thermoformable plastic, is cut to a size slightly larger than the aperture of the card and positioned over the aperture. The system may also include a plastic heat-bonded packing station, wherein the plastic card may be peripherally or tack scaled about the window of the card. The system would include a blister forming and a blister sealing station in which a blister is formed in the thermoformable material by a heated die and the blister edges sealed about the peripheral openings. The system usually includes a blister filling station, generally which may be adjacent an article discharging machine, such as an injection molding machine, so that the article or articles to be packaged, for example, for the purposes of illustration only, batteries, may be inserted directly within the blister. The system would then include a package covering station, in which the card is folded over to cover the back of the aperture, then a package sealing station in which the back of the card is sealed across the back of the aperture in the card to enclose the article within the transparent blister. The packaging system generally also includes a "pick and place" device, in which the individual blister packages are then picked up and placed as desired in a collation and stacking device. The blister packages are collated and stacked and then delivered to a carton for shipment either manually or by the employment of a blister packaging carton packing device.
Thus, generally, a blister packaging system would include a flat card section, with one or more blister packages therein, each of the blister packages sealed to the card and containing an article to be packaged, and with generally the blister often occupying only a portion of the card, the card having printed sales, marketing or user instructions for the article packaged on the other portion. Generally, the blister then extends above the surface of the flat card, and this provides for an asymmetric-type blister package, since generally the blister occupies less than half, say one-third, of one end of the flat card, and with the other end of the flat card often having a small aperture therein to be held on an article display rack.
It is most desirable, in order to save space in the shipment of asymmetric blister packages, to have the blister packaging collated and stacked in an inverted-type arrangement, so that the packing density is considerably reduced in packaging; that is, to have the blister oriented at each end so that the flat back of one card would nest against the flat back of another card with blisters sequentially inverted, thus saving considerable space and packing density. There are collators and stacking apparatuses available to provide for the collation and stacking of asymmetrical blister packaging, that is, to arrange the blister packages in a sequential, end-to-end, back-to-back arrangement in order to save space when the oriented asymmetric packages are collated and stacked and then manually, or by machine, deposited in a shipping carton. While such collating and stacking devices have been reasonably satisfactory, these devices typically are quite complex in operation, and expensive to purchase, operate and maintain.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide for a new and improved blister packaging collator and stacking apparatus, system and method that is simple and effective in operation, easy and inexpensively manufactured, operated and maintained, and which provides for advantages over presently operated blister packaging collator and stacking apparatus, and which may be usefully employed in any packaging system and method.